Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1887-09-22
cH,NcoTEAouE PONIES.

CHiNcoTEAGuE PONIES.
The Annual Penning Of Peculiar Kind Of
Virginia Mays.
Here's the pony. gentlemen. Thar
amt 10 finer traveller on the island.
Whoa, thar! durn ye!'
The speaker. tall, angular chap
with unkempt hair, cardinal shirt,
blue overalls and barefooted, a typical
specimen of the native. was holding
by the long name FESTIVE. diminutive
pony. the raising and penning Of
which has. within the last decade.
made the island of Chincoteague, Va,
in connection with its great oyster de-
posts. famous throughout the country.
And while he was vociferously expa-
tiating upon the speeding qualities Of
his charge the crowd was constantly
augmenting in size-a curious, hetero-
geneous congregation of people. who
came in boats from the Virginia shore
and in the cars from the back counties
in Maryland. This year. how
ever, the attendance has not
been confined exclusively to
residents of the immediate neigh
borhood, but Philadelphia, New
York, Baltimore and Washington have
contributed largely to swell the crowds
from the rural districts. Conspicuous
among this great audience are the
colored people, who regard the event
as holiday and are always present in
full force.
These pennings take place annual
ly in August, and for weeks great
preparations are made by the people
to attend them. The avant courier is
the corpulent colored woman with her
toothsome squares of old-fashioned
gingerbread and spruce beer. The
rapid development of internal improve
ments and the memorable march of
progressive intelligence have some
what shorn these pennings of their
antique and novel features, but there
is still much left to make them pro-
foundedly interesting and highly
amusing to the Northern spectator.
1t is almost impossible 10 learn any
thing as to the origin of the Chin
colleague pony. The Oldest inhabitant
can not give correct or intellige mt
version of whence he came. They all
have their theories. some of them
plausible enough in their way, but
there is lack of authenticity in these
narratives that leave impressions of
dubious character. A great many claim
that they are an offspring of the pony
of the Shetland Isles and must
have found their way to Chincoteague
from large steamer that was wrecked
on the island before it was inhabited.
Certain it is, at one time they roamed
the island in vast numbers, but when
the great storm of forty years ago de-
vastated the country and almost SUBJ
merged Chincoteague. it came near an
Initiating them.
In size the Chincoteague pony up.
proximates that of the Shetland. The
hair ON their bodies is thick and shay
gy, and their names and tails are long
and glossy. They are strong, hardy
little fellows, roaming wild on the ex-
treme southern end of the island, feed.
ing on the hay and tender roots which
grow in luxurious abundance in the
salt marshes bordering on the bay and
the Atlantic Ocean. When they are
brought in they are divided off into
what is known in the vernacular as
herds, and each herd has its own Pc
culiar mark or brand to distinguish it
from the others and thus obviate the
difficulty of dispute as to identity and
ownership when corraled for branding.
These branding-irons are made accord
ing to the notion of the owner, repre-
senting the initials. stars. spear-heads,
crosses. ETC.. and are easily distin-
guished. Cor. Philadelrhia Times